tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley.

tonight a conversation with regina benjamin and jeff henderson. we are glad you joined us. those conversations start now. ♪ >> the california endowment. help happens in the neighborhood. learn more. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪

tavis: transforming public health in this country has grabbed headlines as the affordable care act is debated and implemented. making affordable health care available is one thing that needs to be done. former us now is the former surgeon general. dr. benjamin, good to have you on this program. you see my friend norman francis, the longest serving in the country. he said he made a great decision having you at xavier. you went to school there, did you not? >> i am an alum. i was in undergrad all four years. got introduced to medicine their and emma dr. because of it. quek look back -- >> look back on what you are most proud of.

>> i led the efforts and helped establish the first strategy, a roadmap to the nations health and wellness, it to lead us in becoming a more healthy and fit nation. it is one of my most prized accomplishment. it is the first time ever to have a counsel of 17 cabinet level members sit down together to put together a strategy for the nation to become more healthy and fit. tavis: what do you plan to do to continue that work. >> i am continuing to push the efforts of public health, to lead us from a health care on welfarene based and prevention. this was a wonderful opportunity for me. having this and out chair allows me to continue that level of engagement, but more importantly, it allows me to healtho develop young

professionals in health careers. xavier is renowned for getting particularlyrity, african american, to go into health care. we are number one in that. more recently we have become number one in getting african- american students to go into phd's in biology and chemistry and physics, so we have a great and toecord to build on have young people going to health careers and to focus on public health, getting into the community and learning public health early on. most appointees will go to larger schools. i wanted to go to a small

liberal arts college for they go to medical school and get them out in the community -- before they go into medical school and get them out in the community and making a difference. tommy quickly your sense of how it is and why it is poverty is -- tell me quickly how your sense of how poverty is connected. it plays an impact on individuals in the community. we have toe shown start to change the dynamics, and giving people access to health care is only the beginning. we have to change social determinants. education is one of the major parts. young people who have a high school education, high school degree have two and a half times

longer than those who do not. those with a college degree, even more, and diseases like diabetes and hypertension are more prevalent in those less educated. >> what do you make of all the politics, the pushback on obama care? >> obamacare has become a political football, but it has some really good parts. have the part about insurance reform, but we have efforts like that national prevention strategy, and those parts won't get talked about as much. we are trying to get young people to go into health careers to help solve those problems. let you go, we are going to do a tribute to nelson mandela.

we know our presidents resident and former are on their way to south africa for this service. in the 90's you were the recipient of the reward. there is a u.s. recipient. there is a south african recipient. what did it mean to bear such a bears the name of nelson mandela? >> he is such an inspiration. basically the social justice part of leadership is so important, and he fit in. carries a that award great responsibility. he showed us his actions what

leadership is about. we want to continue carrying on those leadership skills by action and leadership in action. in south africa the constitution when he was in office was that health care was a right. that was the first nation to put helped her in the constitution. >> coming up, a conversation with jeff henderson about his if you can see it, you can be it. no secretrson makes of the struggles he had in the past. book dealt with the challenges he has faced. now he has written a new book

about the lessons he has learned. it is called, if you can see it, you can be it: 12 streetsmart recipes to success." tell me how difficult it has been to make the transition from there to here. >> it definitely was many challenges. one of the keys to changing anyone's life is changing the mindset. when i was in prison i knew what i wanted to do when i got out, to become a chef and be successful and get rid of the criminal lifestyle. i had many naysayers who said i could never become a chef at a high-end hotel. them wrong. i laid out many of the streetsmart recipes and lesson throughout my journey to get here to this day. tavis: how did you come out of

prison so confident? thing we hear is that it .oes not rehabilitate people it is incarceration but not rehabilitation. it seems to work for you because you came out knowing what you wanted to do. where does that confidence come from? was a little boy i always was confident in the things i wanted to do in life. when i was in prison with many inmates -- some learn to do the time. others let the time do them. i was fortunate to be in prison where i was locked up with some of the most brilliant minds. michael milken was in there. any of the wall street guys. he said, when you were on the streets selling drugs, you understood budgets.

do isd, all you have to change the product. self discovery, learning how to cook in prison. i utilized my gift of gab, which is a great communicator. i came out ready and focused. to key is being able reinvent themselves. the prison system doesn't rehabilitate you. you have to be ready to rehabilitate yourself. the recipesentioned to success. i want you to say a word about how these became recipes to your success. particular order, the self-control are. >> the self-control or is an individual who understands a level of leadership, an individual who takes control of his life. that is important to me because in prison they take control of you.

i wanted to make sure i let people know you understand you have to be in charge of your own life and destiny's. strategic.s about >> i was always disciplined in prison and in my life today. i don't waiver from what i am trying to do. discipline is one of the strategies for anyone to become successful. tavis: the gab master. >> growing up in the hood when you talk a lot, people say, that boy has gift of gab. i wanted to redefine it. it is connected with negativity. i called it the gab master. in the professional world they call it a great communicator, a person who communicates well. i have always communicated well, and that is one of the recipes

anyone needs to get the job, to manage people. you have to be able to communicate well with other people. tavis: there are a number of terms you introduce. own terminology. one of the words i love is lepreneur.s pre-k's we did a brain dump. of folks whop tried to pull out all the strategic lessons in how i became successful. when i look at myself as being a hustler, a hustler is born out of poverty. a hustler is in survival mode. the word hustler has a bad connotation. i want to redefine the word hustler.

words.ed two hustler and entrepreneur. tavis: everybody is hustling now. famous, don't believe in knocking the hustle. everybody is hitting their hustle on. i'm not sure the word is as negative as it used to be. >> it is brought into mainstream. what defined the legitimate hustler is how one conducts business. i say i am a hustler today. you have to hustle. we live in a time where you have to hustle or you don't eat. this book is not just for incarcerated individuals. this is for people who may have lost their jobs and are stuck in life. there are tens of millions of

people who are mentally incarcerated. self-imposed air years and roadblocks they put on themselves. any level ofaching success is making sure you understand how to break yourself free of mental incarceration. i remember the first time i was invited to speak at the prison, i wanted to go. i wanted to give a positive word. i wanted to say something that would be inspiring, and then i got scared out of my mind. what scared me is how do you bring a word of encouragement to a cat sitting in prison for 15 years or 25 years or life? say to them? i recall having a conversation with a friend who has spent 35 plus years doing prison work,

and i won't express it the way he lays it out, but he basically made the point you have just made, that there are some folks behind prison bars who are more free than those of us walking the streets, because it is about he mindset. once you are on lockdown you have got to find a way mentally to adjust and to deal with your incarceration. >> absolutely. there are two answers to that question. there is an art to doing time. i have a 70-nerdy rule. it is where i spent -- 70-30 rule. 30% of my time was on the outside, reading "the wall street journal," building relationships with individuals fresh off the streets in the prison. at was key to me so when i came out of prison i wasn't in a time

warp. to many of you gave the brothers and sisters who go into the system is hope. hope is key. to know there is hope for us to go legit and blend back on the outside, but one of the key messages i get is, use your time to free your mind. 27son mandela was locked up years, but he wasn't mentally locked up. he was free the whole time. reading books allows you to expose yourself to what is going on in the world. that's what i did. this: one thing that makes possible is the fact you are consistently espousing these principles. you do a lot of this in front of corporate america. ofhink of you in front fortune 500 companies.

these companies have you speak to their employees all the time. what do you say when you get these invites to speak to major corporations? >> i take the principles out of my success as a drug dealer, which is a part of my life i am not proud of, but in order to be successful in any entrepreneur in denver, there are certain traits you have, being able to manage people, seeing certain opportunities, and you wouldn't imagine how many executives come up to me and say, your story is my story. i have a son who made poor choices. i was once at that crossroads as well. >> do you think it is possible anyone who has been incarcerated, people who have been aimlessly trying to find their way, do you think these work for anybody and everyone? >> these have a broad appeal to

anyone. most folks go to college, they get a degree, but college doesn't guarantee the american dream. just working harder isn't good enough. you have to be strategic and build the right relationships. i deal with the link the brand. .elationship building, this is sent just for folks -- this is for everybody. it isn't just for folks in prison. it is called "if you can see it, you can be it. before we close tonight, more than 90 world leaders make their way to south africa to attend a of hisl, the reprise

visit to los angeles. stay with us. with the passing of nelson mandela, the world has lost a tireless force for leadership and an inspiring human being. thosepacity to forgive who sought to destroy him have inspired all of us who have shared his lifetime and will continue to inspire generations no doubt for years to come. tonight i want to share a very personal memory i have of the man. i was an assistant to mayor tom bradley, and nelson mandela was coming to our city. i remember it like it was yesterday. i couldn't sleep through the night, anxious with anticipation. i was plotting how i could associate myself to actually meet him, shake his hand, maybe even take a photo with him.

i was trying to devise a strategy that might find me hiding in a closet in the mayor's office until he arrived for a meeting. mandela was the deputy president of the african national congress, and l.a. was one of the final stops on the eighth to the u.s. to her. internationalnned tour following his release from prison after 27 years. i was just a 25-year-old junior aide to mayor bradley back then. d he had been imprisoned for his beliefs longer than i had been living at the time. there was no way i was going to avoid what i now know to be a pretty standard building sweep by the secret service prior to the arrival of dignitaries and heads of state, so before nelson mandela arrived, the secret service forced everybody out of

the mayor's suite, everybody except that mayor's lapd security team. i could tell by the route nelson mandela was taking to the meeting and back to city hall for the rally that there was no way i was going to get close to mr. mandela, so i decided to stay outside with the fellow citizens in downtown l.a. who had come to cheer and celebrate the rarest of human beings. i have always regarded dr. king as the greatest american this country has produced, but dr. king was dead long before i was out of diapers. here was a freedom fighter that represents the closest thing to kings correct i would ever meet. i was stuck outside pouting until someone yelled to me the mayor was asking for me. backecret service let me inside city hall, and i moved or the hallways, now filled with mandela's entourage, to see what the mayor needed. all the time i am looking for a glimpse myself. .he mayor wished us to meet

mandela wanted to personally greet mohammed ali and sidney poitier before he went to speak at the rally. my job as a young aide was to go outside and escort ali and poitier back into the mayor's office. my heart accelerated so fast i immediately ran outside and i hadd ali and what ea as been told. when i open the security door into the long hallway that led to the mayor's personal office and the mayor's entourage, saw i'll be and what he a walking tour -- saw ali and poitier walking toward them, i cannot describe the sheer ecstasy in that hallway as we walked toward them standing alongside mayor bradley.

life is not about the breaths we take but about the moments that take our breath away. those precious memories. i have really of this moment countless times, and every time i think on it i get joy unspeakable. i was able to start friendships with two iconic americans. my life has been greatly enriched by their guests and friendship. as for mandela, i didn't get to have a conversation with him today, -- that day, but i did get a handshake emma and i got my hug. what can be more inspiring for a 25-year-old african-american male wanting to make a contribution to society? that handshake and that hug it more to me than words can express. we were asked to keep him in our prayers. now that he is gone, i will hisinue to do that.

unwavering commitment to justice for all, service to others, and love. i want to say that the choices he made and the life he lived remind us all that sooner or later we have to give our fears work toration date and give the kind of world we want to inhabit. good night, and as always, keep the faith. ♪ >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with jd power, the man who helped to transform the auto industry.

that's next time. we will see you then. ♪ >> the california endowment. help happens in neighborhoods. learn more. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs.

% n]♪ hello. i'm becca king reed. welcome to this is us. this week, we're at the hiller aviation museum in san carlos. and as you can see, it's just filled with amazing aircraft. you may not realize it, but many of aviation's milestones were accomplished right here in northern california. tonight, we're going to talk about some of those pioneers and get a peek at these fantastic machines. we'll also meet three remarkable women in flight and space travel. a world war ii wasp, one of the first female commercial pilots in the nation, and a woman who played a key role in the success of the hubble telescope. and it all starts right now. % n]♪